Intel Tualatin Anyone?

[AudioVideoMaster]

I've currently got a 500mhz P3 with 1GB of SDRAM on my motherboard, and I've been looking into some of the Intel Tualatin processors with one of the Powerleap slot-1 adapters as an upgrade. Not the server 512K L2 cache versions. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had any experience or words of wisdom about these processors?

Money is the biggest factor for not upgrading to a P4 because I would have to get a new motherboard, new memory, the new processor itself, and a higher wattage power supply (I currently have a 250W).

TIA!

[Morbid]

I've brought a few for some PC's at work. If your Motherboard is on the compatibility list for the adapter your looking at, they work fine.


My probelm with them is that they tend to sell the processors on the high side and won't just sell the adapter alone.

Cheers

[erbuk]

I would first take a look around for prices on Tualtain compatible motherborads. Some models are not much more expensive than the adapter...

In fact, I just did a search at a few webshops. And where I live I can get a new mainboard cheaper than the adapter.

And you would probably have a hard time selling a used slot-1 processor. But your processor with mainboard is a completely different matter. It's a very interesting upgrade for people with AMD K6-2/K6-3 processors...

[Xayd]

The powerleap adapters work great from my experiences with them on an old BP6.

Yeah you can get I815 boards still pretty cheap, but they top out at 512 megs of ram unfortunately :\. If you didn't already have a gig of RAM it wouldn't be a bad idea to grab one, but you do so it's not really that great an idea from that standpoint.

[erbuk]

VIA 694T (also called apollo pro 133T) based boards supports up to 1536MB RAM and are cheaper than the I815 based. I have two of them myself (one Microstar and one ECS) and they work just as they should. Not very sexy, but no problems either.

[AudioVideoMaster]

Thanks for all the input guys. I bought a tualatin powerleap adapter on ebay for $36 that was mentioned. And I'll get 1.2Ghz 256K version procesor for it once I see a bargain on there.

[Xayd]

It's a shame Intel didn't make the I815 a real successor to the 440BX like they should have. They were still promoting Rambus at the time.

If it weren't for the I815's memory limitation it'd still be a great upgrade for low end PCs and media PCs and such.

[Lord of the Discs]

I have 1.2 GHz Tualatin Celeron (they have 256 KB cache) which I run
at 112 MHz FSB -> 1344 MHz absolutly stable for over a year. A friend
of mine runs an 1.4 GHz Celeron at 112 MHz, also stable, and both CPUs
ARE used a lot (converting, capturing and rendering for hours).

So, I can recommend the 1.4 GHz Celeron, I´m just not sure about
overclocking with an adapter.

LotD

[AudioVideoMaster]

Originally posted by Lord of the Discs
I have 1.2 GHz Tualatin Celeron (they have 256 KB cache) which I run
at 112 MHz FSB -> 1344 MHz absolutly stable for over a year. A friend
of mine runs an 1.4 GHz Celeron at 112 MHz, also stable, and both CPUs
ARE used a lot (converting, capturing and rendering for hours).

So, I can recommend the 1.4 GHz Celeron, I´m just not sure about
overclocking with an adapter.

LotD

When you are saying converting and capturing and rendering are you refering to digital video stuff or audio encoding, etc.? I'm big into DV editing and Adobe After Effects rendering stuff mostly for the menu systems for my DVD's I create. Do you think the Tualatin CELERON would would be better than the P3 version? I mean what are the differences really? Other than $100!! :)

I still haven't bought the processor yet.

[Lord of the Discs]

Hi, you´re right, I do refer to digital video and audio stuff.
A Tualatin P3 is sure better (faster) than a Tualatin Celeron, it
runs at 133 MHz FSB, but the difference was not big enough for me
to spend 100$ more.

LotD

[AudioVideoMaster]

Well I finally ordered the Tualatin 1.2GHZ 256K processor. Retail version.

But I was looking at the powerleap slot-1 adapter that I've already received and it has a graph for setting CPU core-voltage settings. The default is 1.550V-1.575V on the instructions. And I've heard of overclocking by increasing the voltage to the processor (I think that's correct). The graph shows that I could go all the way up to 1.800V-1.825V. Is that safe? Would I need more cooling on the processor than the standard fan and heatsink that come with the retail version? OR has anyone successfully and safely done this to these procesors?

Just curious. :)

[Ramirez]

Hi, just live those jumpers in their default location, Powerleap adaptor will set correct Vcore and FSB settings automatically for you. And no, you can't overclock your CPU just by increasing Vcore voltage,:) for that you'd have to adjust your system clock frequency (FSB) in your motherboard BIOS, dunno if it's possible to adjust these settings with your current motherboard though, post your mobo manufacturer/model number.

[AudioVideoMaster]

Originally posted by Ramirez
...post your mobo manufacturer/model number.

My motherboard is a Supermicro PIIISCD

Here's the official specs from Supermicro:
http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/820/PIIISCD.htm

[Ramirez]

OK, first of all your motherboard probably configured to adjust FSB settings automatically, I'd suggest you to locate and remove jumper -JP12- (set your system frequency to 100FSB instead of /AUTO) otherwise PowerLeap adaptor will take over your FSB settings and you won't be able to adjust these parameters. As for your mobo overclocking abilities, there are several FSB speeds you can choose from,>> 105/114/ 120/ 66.8/ 124/ 128.5/ 133.9MHz/>>I think it's pretty safe for you to go for 114-FSB>1368 MHz.

P.S
You might need to increase the Vcore voltage in case of system lock-ups ,also it's recommended to perform some system stability tests.
(Check the "How to test system stability" (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54130) sticky)

Good luck :)

[AudioVideoMaster]

Got the processor and the powerleap adapter all ready installed it with the default settings for 133Mhz FSB. No overclocking yet, just trying to get up and running. Anyway, the computer's first bootup post at 866Mhz... It's a 1200Mhz. The computer wouldn't go all the way into either Windows 98SE or XP on my dual boot. Had to update my bios as the instructions recommended, to recognize the higher speeds. Done that and the computer now post at 1200mhz at bootup just fine now.

But the computer still won't boot into any Windows OS!
--I tried taking all of my PCI cards out to see it there was a device problem no luck. I have to keep my ATI AIW 128 graphics card in it's AGP slot because I don't have a backup onboard video on my motherboard.
--I tried loading safe mode... no luck.
--I tried the step-by-step confromation proccedure to see if it was a windows driver or device problem...no luck. With that step-by-step process it gets to msmouse.vxd and that's the last driver I can load before the computer stops and hangs up. What ever is after that may be the problem.

Did anyone else run into this problem?!
I'm stumped on this one.
:rolleyes:

[AudioVideoMaster]

Disregard the post above...sigh. After a couple more days after that post and fooling with this thing I just gave up. Got tired of messing with the whole thing and resold the adapter on ebay. The processor is next.. but haven't posted it on there yet.

I'll just save my money for a few months for a P4 system. There's always Christmas!! P4 3.2GHZ 800FSB here I come! :D

One good thing came out of all this is that I found out that I could overclock my P3 500Mhz processor to ~572Mhz by increasing the FSB to 114. Any higher and it was unstable. That's just with the standard retail heatsink and fan that it came with. :D

[erbuk]

Hate to say that I said so. But buing a new motherboard does not cost much more than the adapter and wouldn't have causee you any problems.

[AudioVideoMaster]

OK OK. :)

I'll admit you told me so erbuk. :p
But I had to try.
I got back the same amount I paid for the adapter when I resold it yesterday.

I've got my eye on the Asus P4C800 Deluxe Motherboard; when I get the money saved up. To go with that processor I mentioned above. Or someone buys it for me for Christmas! :sly: